31st Street Pub

WHAT’S NEW AT THE 31ST STREET PUB YOU ASK?
You may have been hearing about WYEP’s Pittsburgh Performance Project. It’s our contribution to the Pittsburgh 250 celebration, and a look at the Top 12 Pittsburgh venues for live music.

The Venues(no particular order)
The Decade
Crawford Grill #2
Syria Mosque
Mancini’s
31ST STREET PUB!!!
Carnegie Music Hall (Oakland)
The Hurricane
Shadow Lounge
Graffiti
The Electric Banana
Civic Arena
The Stanley Theater

31ST STREET PUB NOW HAS FREE INTERNET ACCESS!

Wanna know more about The 31st Street Pub?

From Greater Pittsburgh METROGUIDE:

31ST STREET PUB (The Strip District)When you want your rock raw, unpretentious and no-nonsense-in a bar to match-the 31st Street Pub will fit the bill. Like a rebel, it's located in an unglamorous building on the outskirts of The Strip District, completely isolated from other bars. Tattoos, leather jackets and Harley's are welcome, but not necessary, to enjoy a great show.

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National Acts
..and just plain outta town bands that have PLAYED The 31st Street Pub:
(kind of in alphabetical order...)

WEEDEATER
KOFFIN KATS
THE BUTCHERS
OMEGA LORD
TATTOOED MILLIONAIRES
BURKINA ELECTRIC
SONIC CHICKEN 4
POLKA FREAKOUT
UGLY BEATS
DARK BUSTER
GUTTER PUNX
THE SERPENTINES
CRANK COUNTY DAREDEVILS
HIDDEN HAND
THE DWARVES
CHAPSTICK
THE SPUNKS
BLUE CHEER
KRUM BUMS
RTX
BLOWFLY
THE GO
THE CHARMS
THE SAINTS
KYLESA
The 440's
60 Second Crush
Amazing Crowns
Anal Blast
ANTiSEEN
The Bamboo Kids
The Black Halos
The Bloody Hollies
Bitter Fall
The Black Keys
The Blackouts
Brothers of Conquest
Bob Log III
The Bomb
Bottom
Broadzilla
Broomfiller
Buzzsawyer
The Carlsonics
Chargers Street Gang
Cherry Valence
Cowslingers
Cult of the Psychic Fetus
The Delta 72
Destroy Everything
Devil Kit
Dictators
Die Cheerleader Die
The Dirty Shames
Dixie Witch
Drag Strip Syndicate
The Dragons
Drossells
Electric Frankenstein
The Erotics
Exene Cervenka and the Original Sinners
The Factory Incident
Fang
Fake Brain
Fear Itself
The Flesh
Fleshtones
The Forms
Frankenstein Drag Queens
The Generators
Gil Mantera's Party Dream
Girlush Figure
Gluecifer
Gore Gore Girls
Gotham Road
Grabass Charlestons
GRAND MOTHERS
Greenhornes
Halo
HELLACOPTERS
High School Hellcats
Holly Golightly
Immortal Lee County Killers
Impulse Items
Insomniacs
Johnie 3
Judah Johnson
Kalibas
Karma To Burn
Keith Frank
Knoxville Girls
The Last Vegas
Leadfoot
The Legendary Shack Shakers
Les Baton Rouge
Limecell
Lo-Hi
Long Black Sedan
Lords of the Highway
Lost Goat
Lords of Altamont
Meatjack
Mike Watt
Manda & The Marbles
The Midnight Evils
Mooney Suzuki
The Murder Junkies
Necrophagist
Needles
New Bomb Turks
The Nods
Oh My God
Only Crime
Orodruin
The Parkinsons
Paybacks
Place of Skulls
Pretty Girls Make Graves
The Priests
Pulling Teeth
The Purrs
Rake
The Ranch Girls & Their Rag Time Wranglers
Razzles
REID PALEY
Rocket From The Crypt
Roger Manning
The Rolemodels
Sadida
Sahara Hotnights
Slaughter and the Dogs
Speed Dealer
Soledad Brothers
Spirit Caravan
The Star Spangles
Stinking Lizaveta
Stolen Element
Superdrag
Supersuckers
Swingin' Neckbreakers
The Tim Version
Totimoshi
Trash Brats
Tub Ring
Twistin Tarantulas
Ubangis
Vice Squad
Vena Cava
Wadsworth
The Waxwings
The Weirdos
The Wildhearts
The Wheelies
White Stripes
Woolworthy
Zeke

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PHOTO: Andrew Johnson/Tribune-Review

TRIBUNE-REVIEW
As live music venues close, one hangs on By Andrew Johnson TRIBUNE-REVIEW Friday, October 21, 2005
Obscenities are scrawled wall-to-wall in the back room where musicians wait to take the stage. Stickers of bands like The Burning Sensations cover every inch of the men's room. The main lobby honors the owner's decades-long interest in collecting skulls. Letty DiGirolamo said she comes anyway to the 31st Street Pub. "It's not a dive bar," said DiGirolamo, 37, of Weirton, W.Va. Her boyfriend, Harrison Dray, plays bass in Pittsburgh punk scene staple, The Science Fiction Idols, and she knows enough dive bars.
"This place is a palace," said former club owner Johnny "Banana" Zarra, of the defunct Electric Banana. "Now my place, that was a (expletive)." Live music is on the decline in Pittsburgh. R.I.P.: Metropol, Club Laga, Nick's Fat City, Rosebud, Cloud 9 -- all in the past two years. The shutterings have only accelerated since Zarra's Bigelow Boulevard place pulled its music plugs in 2000.
But here at the 31st Street Pub in the Strip District, one hard core band of concertgoers -- and one man -- keeps alive in the tiniest club of them all.

The 31st Street Pub has offered live music for 10 years. It opened in 1962.
That's when Harry Greenfield, now 81, bought a bar inhabited by mill workers. The older Greenfield said that worked all right, until the mill closed. Son Joel, whose teenage interest soon blossomed into skull collecting, helped plot the bar's dark, outlaw future. Greenfield, a biker, turned the pub into a biker bar. Greenfield said a biker bar was a good fit. He was always attracted to people, like him, who scared others. "I liked it when (moms) pulled their kids away from me," he said.
Life was good for awhile: The White Stripes played twice in 2001, arguably the club's biggest moments.
The artists, are very loyal. "I love it," said Angelo Amantea, 39, a drummer for The Science Fiction Idols, who has played the pub hundreds of times. Amantea said one of his old bands, The Ultimatics, once made $900 during a CD release party.
Big bands, and big-name appearances, witnessed through the 31st Street Pub: •The White Stripes -- twice in 2001 •Marky Ramone (drummer from the Ramones) and the Intruders •Mo Tucker (drummer from the Velvet Underground) •The Black Keys •Sylvain Sylvain (guitarist from the New York Dolls)
THE 31ST STREET PUB STORY:

•Mill worker bar, 1962 to late-1960s •Trucker bar, late-1960s to late-1970s •Biker bar, late-1970s to mid-1990s •Punk rock bar, mid-1990s to present
PUB BREAKDOWN
Atmosphere: The motto, "High Octane Rock and Roll" pretty much says it all. The perfectly dingy rock club fills a long, dark and narrow barroom leading to "The Skull Room." Yes, there's a wall cabinet full of dozens of skull paraphernalia, from skull-shaped mugs and candles, to Mexican Day-of-the-Dead figurines, to what look like actual human skulls. So if your idea of "atmosphere" is the Osbournes family reunion, complete with all the weird uncles and cousins they couldn't show on TV, this is your place. Party People: Bikers, spiked-and-studded punkers, long-haired metalheads, tattooed rockabilly cats with leather jackets and greased-back hair, hard-drinkin', disheveled garage rockers and a few gnomish music geeks. It's a surprisingly open-minded and friendly bunch.
Tunes: One of the best places to check out great regional and national touring bands before they get too big -- and expensive.
-- Michael Machosky/Tribune-Review